David Sosnowski by Vamped

Author:Vamped
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Ibuy her parka from the Screamer department at JCPenney, the down pillows from Coffin, Crypt, and Beyond. All it takes to get the wires out is a good tug, but getting the feathers in? That’s another story—especially after Isuzu plops down on top of an open pillow, poofing a small blizzard of plumage across the room.

“Hey, Pops,” she says in this slow, too-deep, rusty-hinge voice she’s started using. Just in case I haven’t noticed she’s depressed. Just in case I haven’t heard her cry for help. “What’s up?”

I sputter a feather away before saying, “The price of everything.” That’s half of a joke my father used to love. The other half is, “Even the price of down is up.”

Isuzu’s chewing a rubber grape, yet another weird habit she’s developed lately. There’s a hole on one end where the grape was once attached to a rubber vine. She can make the thing smack and pop like bubble gum and frequently does because she knows it bugs me. Other times, she gets it stuck to the end of her tongue and then exposes it to me, just for the fun of rattling her old man.

She does the latter now, and I snatch it off with a quick pop.

“Nasty cold sore you got there,” I say. “You should see somebody about that.”

“Yeah, right,” she says, pulling another from a pocket in her pajamas. “But seriously,” she says, smacking away again, “watcha doin’?”

“Me?” I say. “I’m getting ready for a little vacation.”

Isuzu looks like I’ve just slapped her. She stops chewing. As much as she loves bugging me, I’m still all she’s got. And it’s clear from the expression on her face that the idea of me leaving for any length of time scares the hell out of her.

“Where…,” she begins. “Wh-wh-where you going?”

Oh, Ido love this section of the parenthood. The part where I get to torture the sprout with impunity. I let it last a little longer.

“Fairbanks,” I say.“A-K.”

“Jeezus.”

“Language!”

“Sorry,” Isuzu says. Pauses.“Alaska?”

“Twenty-hour nights, kiddo,” I say, brushing away a few feathers that have settled on my shoulders.

“Serious party town.” I pause before adding, “Woo-hoo!” along with the fist pump of a much younger vampire.

Isuzu’s eyes say,Who are you and what have you done with Martin?

Her lips decide to plagiarize the sentiment. “Whoare you…,” she begins.

“Why don’t you see if this fits?” I say, shaking out the parka and stirring up a brand-new blizzard.

Isuzu’s eyes say,Mine! Mine! All mine! Or something to that effect.

“Are you kidding?” is what her lips actually say, using her regular voice, not the depressed, rusty-hinge one.

“Nope.”

“You’re for serious taking me with you?” She says this with an excitement and urgency I haven’t seen in way too long.

So I pause before answering, letting her wait. Letting her stew. I give her parka another shake, smile, and let the duck feathers drift down around us, like easy puns.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.